Abstract:

This course will address challenges scientists encounter while transitioning between their junior years (PhD defence) and the first stable position. This will be done while critically reflecting on whether we like academia as it has designed so far, whether we can actually live with that and what we could contribute to change to make it a more suitable place. It is organised around two main pillars:

1) Journal choice: the first session deals with the choice of an academic outlet for your work. It is well known that journals differ from one another through Impact Factor. Choice of a journal should not merely depend on IF. There are other criteria one might want to take into account from visibility of the journal to their reputation in the country where you work, speed of review process and open access options offered by the journal. This session will teach you how to orientate in the world of academic journals and what elements to take into account to

make a choice.

2) Writing and publishing: you will be guided into how to structure an article to make it suitable for a given journal, how to choose and approach publishers and why sometimes it is better to target an average journal rather than a top one. Discussions will also focus on the role of open science and open access, impact factor and author processing charges in research careers.

Suggested preliminary readings

“Why was my article desk-rejected?” Academic Chatter Blog

https://academic-chatter.com/blog/why-was-my-article-desk-rejected/

“What’s the best publisher for your book?”, Inside Higher Education

https://www.insideighered.com/advice/2019/11/05/four-variables-consider-when-choosing-publisher-opinion

“Think strategically: what can co-authorship bring to your academic career?” ,

https://www.echer.org/what-can-co-authorship-bring-to-your-academic-career/

Bio of the instructor: Abel Polese is a researcher, trainer, writer, manager and fundraiser. He has worked on questions of development, (informal) governance, identity, shadow economy, corruption and reciprocity. He is also interested in management and strategic thinking

of academic career. He is the author of “The SCOPUS Diaries and the (il)logics of Academic Survival: A Short Guide to Design Your Own Strategy and Survive Bibliometrics, Conferences, and Unreal Expectations in Academia”, a reflection on academic life, research, mental

health, life-work balance and the choices and obstacles young scholars face at the beginning of their career.

Main text: Polese, A. (2019) The SCOPUS diaries and the (il)logics of academic survival A short guide to design your own strategy and survive bibliometrics, conferences and unreal expectations in academia. Stuttgart: Ibidem Verlag

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-scopus-diaries-and-the-illogics-of-academic-survival/9783838211992